How to Use a Subplot

One of my favourite subplots in all the novels I’ve read lies in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It concerns Orr, a friend of Yossarian, the main character. Despite liking him, Yossarian can’t help but think that Orr is nuts. He does weird things. It’s not until the end of the book that Yossarian realises there was method in the madness. As Yossarian tries to find a way to escape the madness of WWII, the Orr subplot seems like a bit of light relief, at least at first. No, I won’t spoil it for you, all I will say is this book is the only one that, as soon as I finished reading it, I went back to the beginning and read it all over again. Because the Orr subplot is just that good.

A subplot can accomplish a lot of things in your novel. It can add to the tension, balance the grief or fear with humour, slow or speed up the pace, or reveal a new side to the main character.

Imagine this scenario:

There’s a new monster on the loose. Let’s say it’s a giant slug. The hero is warning people and trying various ways to get rid of the slug, but nothing works. In the meantime, there’s some comic relief: An old man, a retired gardener, is trying to build a new type of gun. The hero isn’t interested. A gun’s not going to impact the slug. But just when all hope seems lost, the old man shows up and attacks the slug with his giant gun, filled with salt. He sprays the slug who immediately melts away. Yes, the whole thing is very silly, but you get the idea.

The Subplot Must Stand Alone

I don’t mean it cannot intersect with the main storyline, but that it must have its own beginning, middle, and end. It must have its own structure which may or may not resemble the main storyline.

The Subplot Must Start Near the Beginning

I’ve read a lot of nonsense about when the subplot should begin. Some say it should start at the beginning of the second act. Others say start with the subplot and then introduce the main story. My theory is… it depends. It depends on the story you’re writing, what contribution you want the subplot to make to that story, and what your gut tells you about when it should begin. In other words, toss the rulebook.

If your story is a mystery, let’s say a young woman is found dead in a river. Your story might begin with a man leaving a particular club, we’ll call it the Purple Jazz Night, or PJN for short. The man sees the girl getting into a gold-coloured car. Later, we find this man works at PJN and he’s obviously terrified of someone. This man with his anxieties and insecurities obviously knows something. The question is can our hero, the detective or perhaps the dead woman’s sister, find him before the villains do?

On the other hand, a romance can begin later. Perhaps the main storyline is about a man who buys a house in the country. He wants quiet and solitude. Then he discovers his next door neighbour is a single woman with two young kids. The subplot might be the woman’s mother trying to get them together — or keep them apart. Perhaps the man’s first wife died under mysterious circumstances and a nice policeman warns the woman to be careful of him. Now we may have two subplots.

The point is, you can make all the hard rules about writing that you like, but as long as the story works, no one will be too bothered. This is true not only of subplots, but of any aspect of writing you can imagine.

The Subplot Must Add to the Overall Story

Regardless of what your main story is about, the subplot must bring something to the narrative. It must impact the main character, though the main character may not even realise it — his ex-wife scuppers his relationship with a new woman, or perhaps an old friend helps him get the job of his dreams. Your subplot could be about the impact our hero (?) had on the lives of others, and they want to pay him back. For good or ill.

You could write a subplot about someone the main character has never met and will never meet. Say his great-grandmother. We have the hero travelling from American back to Ireland, where his family came from, and looking for his great-grandmother’s house. In the meantime, we have the grandmother’s account of her days and her struggles for survival. Perhaps the visitor will see a picture of the old woman, or will read some of her letters. That may be as close as he gets to her, but unknown to himself, he mirrors her character and even her experiences in many ways.

The Subplot May Differ in Style from the Main Story

You may choose to write your main story in the first person, but you don’t have to write your subplot that way. You could opt to write it in the third person omniscient, or even in the second person. (See Bright Lights Big City for an example of this approach.) The subplot may be purely expositionary, perhaps written in the form of newspaper articles, or historical journals. The point is, you can add some texture to your novel by presenting your subplot in a different style.

The Subplot Must Intersect with the Main Storyline

There are many ways this can happen, even if the characters never meet. Perhaps the main character only feels the effects of the subplot character’s largess (or malevolence) through later events. I’m reminded of the end of The Lady of Shalott (by Tennyson). The lady is under a curse that she must weave a web and never leave the loom. She happens to see Sir Lancelot pass by and, on impulse, leaves the loom and runs out in hopes of seeing him. At the end, he finds her body in a boat and has no idea the part he played, albeit innocently, in her death.

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse

In most cases, though, the main character eventually will find himself enmeshed in that subplot. Perhaps the teenager who seemed no more than annoying is actually a vampire hunter and soon the ‘hero’ will be toast. Uh, dust. Another good example is the Bertha Mason subplot in Jane Eyre. This ends up having a few tentacles: the man who comes from the West Indies to see Bertha has ties to Jane’s own family. He also reveals (much later) that Bertha is actually Rochester’s wife. Dirty pool to reveal that at the moment when Rochester and Jane are to be married, but you can’t beat it for tension.

How to Add a Subplot

A lot depends, of course, on how you approach your story. If you are, like me, more of a pantser than a planner, you just follow your instinct and add the subplot narrative as you go along. One word of caution, however: if you write a subplot you have to bring it to an end. Don’t let it tail off somewhere in chapter five and forget about it. The ending of the subplot must tie in with the main narrative.

If you are more a planner and like to know as much about your story as possible before you start writing, then you should determine what your subplot should be, where it begins, and where you need to place it in the narrative.

As I’ve said before, I have my own way of working. I start with a premise, some idea of the ending, and maybe one or two key points along the way. I know who my main character is and what they want. Then I write my first draft. I make it as complete as possible and it always amazes me how often I end with whole scenes that need little or no revision.

Sometimes my first draft is several thousand words too long; sometimes it’s too short. It doesn’t matter, because fixing it is what subsequent drafts are for.

With that first draft complete, I can see where I want the subplot to go. I know what it should be about, and what impact it will have on the main story. That’s assuming I haven’t already set the subplot in place. Speaking purely for myself, having the subplot in mind right from the beginning is far and away the best way to add it. However, if you have a decent first, or even second draft, you can still add a subplot if you find the narrative is lacking something.

Because I write mystery stories, I like to give small hints about the subplot fairly early on. The hints become more frequent over the next few chapters. Then, once I’m sure that I’ve piqued the reader’s interest, I give more specific information and let the subplot grow.

In my most recent book, Great Warrior (Shameless Plug: due to be published by MX on May 15 2024) The main story concerns Sherlock Holmes being awakened from a deep sleep by a woman’s scream. He drags himself downstairs and learns that Mrs Hudson’s niece, a nurse who was living with Mrs H, has been murdered.

The subplot is almost invisible unless the astute reader asks, why is Holmes so exhausted. The reasons for this are revealed slowly and we’re about a third of the way through the novel before we get the full story. No, I’m not going to spoil it, except to say it brings in another layer of mystery and tension, and is not resolved until close to the last page.

One important thing to remember when you are planning your subplot is what you want it to achieve. If it’s to help you manage the tension in the story, then choose the points where you will add the continuation of the subplot. Perhaps right after a moment o crisis, as the hero is in trouble and has no idea how to get out of it. Then, as if it were a film, you switch to a different character, a different part of the plot. This drives readers crazy — but in a good way! To quote Willy Wonka, “The tension is terrible. I hope it lasts.”

You may choose to add the subplot in whole chapters. I’ve seen some writers do this with every alternative, or third or fourth chapter. Unless you’re writing in a completely different style, you need to signpost to the reader that this is a secondary narrative. Some writers will use different fonts, or will name the chapter for the character involved. Perhaps the main character is Barbie, and the subplot is Ken. Unless you want to have all Barbie’s story in pink (not recommended!), it would be easier for the reader if you just title the chapters differently.

Another way to add the subplot is to find elements that connect it to the main story and use those. What do I mean? Well, in addition to adding a subplot passage at the peak of the main story’s tension, you can find elements that the two threads have in common. For instance, main character is eating an orange. Subplot appears and tells about that secondary character picked oranges one summer in Greece. You don’t have to do this every time, but it can be a nice touch as you come to the end of both storylines, to suggest the threads coming together.

Whole books have been written about writing subplots. It’s not an easy subject, and getting it right can be tricky. But with practice and with learning just listen to your subconscious, you will master it.

[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://rycardus.files.wordpress.com/..." data-large-file="https://rycardus.files.wordpress.com/..." width="867" height="1300" src="https://rycardus.files.wordpress.com/..." alt="" class="wp-image-16962" style="width:415px;height:auto" srcset="https://rycardus.files.wordpress.com/... 867w, https://rycardus.files.wordpress.com/... 100w, https://rycardus.files.wordpress.com/... 200w, https://rycardus.files.wordpress.com/... 768w" sizes="(max-width: 867px) 100vw, 867px" />Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com